What occurred
The Senate Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Well being and Human Companies secretary, placing a famous vaccine skeptic in control of America’s huge public well being system. The 52-48 vote was largely alongside get together strains, with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) becoming a member of all Democrats in voting no. Kennedy was sworn in Thursday afternoon.
Who mentioned what
Kennedy has “earned a formidable following together with his populist and typically excessive views on meals, chemical substances and vaccines,” The Related Press mentioned, and his “viewers solely grew throughout the Covid-19 pandemic” as he labored to “erode belief in vaccines in addition to the federal government companies that promote them.” His motion has “married the far left and the far proper,” The New York Instances mentioned, however “mainstream Democrats denounce him as a conspiracy theorist and science denier.”
Kennedy’s affirmation “underscores Trump’s maintain on the Republican Get together,” The Washington Put up mentioned. Some GOP senators involved about Kennedy’s vaccine views mentioned he assuaged their fears. McConnell was not amongst them. As a “survivor of childhood polio” who has “watched vaccines save hundreds of thousands of lives from devastating ailments,” he mentioned, “I can’t condone the re-litigation of confirmed cures” and “scientific miracles.”
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What subsequent?
Kennedy has pledged to “deal with the power illness epidemic, rid grocery shops of ultraprocessed meals and root out conflicts of curiosity in federal companies,” however “has supplied few specifics,” the Instances mentioned. Some allies urged him to focus on “much less contentious matters like power illness and the meals provide,” however his “vaccine security” supporters “need to see him focus his energies” on undermining vaccines.
